Jessica Pegula cracks Iga Swiatek jokes when asked about her Grand Slam chances

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New world No 3 Jessica Pegula jokes avoiding Iga Swiatek is going to be the key to her Grand Slam success in 2023. This past Sunday, Pegula defeated Maria Sakkari to win her first WTA 1000 title in Guadalajara and to also reach a career-high ranking of No 3 in the world.

So far this year, Pegula has played Swiatek four times - ending on the losing side each time. Two of those four defeats came on the Grand Slam level as Pegula lost to Swiatek in the quarterfinals at the French Open and US Open.

"Yeah, I hope so. That's the next step, right? Hopefully, as long as I don't play Iga in the quarterfinals. Hopefully I'll get there (laughter). I think it's going to give me a lot of confidence going into the Grand Slams," Pegula told WTA Insider.

Pegula on eyeing the Slams next year: "Yeah, I hope so. That's the next step, right?

"Hopefully, as long as I don't play Iga in the quarterfinals. Hopefully I'll get there (laughter).

"I think it's going to give me a lot of confidence going into the Grand Slams."#GDLOPENAKRON — WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 24, 2022

Pegula took the advantage of Swiatek not playing

Two weeks ago, Pegula made the San Diego semifinal before losing to Swiatek.

After San Diego, Pegula hopped on a plane to Mexico. Upon arriving to Guadalajara, Pegula realized that she had a good chance to win because Swiatek wasn't playing. "Then I saw my draw and I was like, shoot. I personally thought I had the toughest section of all the draws, just with all the names that were in my section, I was like, 'Holy crap.

Are you serious?' In the back of my mind it was a little bit like, 'OK, well Iga's not in this tournament, Ons didn't play this tournament, Paula lost early. I'm kind of supposed to win. This is your chance to win.' I wanted to solidify myself as being the third-ranked in the world and saying this is my tournament to win.

So I was definitely aware of it, but I don't think I really overthought it or got too caught up in it," Pegula said on the WTA Insider podcast.